


Fire Running in His Veins

by Aer



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, introspective, musings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-29 19:43:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10142579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aer/pseuds/Aer
Summary: Keith wears his veins close to his skin.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short little thing I started between classes because my brain has been completely overtaken by these two. Inspired mostly by how pale Keith is despite living in a desert, and my own extremely prominent veins.

Keith wears his veins close to his skin. 

It's an odd thing to notice, Shiro knows, but he can't help it- not when there's almost no part of Keith that doesn't bear their mark, shadowy blue lines prominent beneath pale skin. It's an odd look for him, a strange juxtaposition of thin porcelain skin and fiery eyes. It makes him look fragile- like a too hard touch would shatter him beyond repair. 

Shiro knows nothing could be further from the truth. There are many times he's convinced Keith is the strongest of them all, his shoulders not the broadest, but the most unflinching beneath his burden. That is not to say the other paladins are any less brave or strong- far from it! Only that Shiro knows Keith, knows the set of his jaw and the tilt of his chin, the fire in his eyes that says, "the universe itself has tried to beat me into nothingness, and yet here I am. Who are _you_ , to tell me otherwise?" He makes his every breath a challenge to those that would force him down- has given that look to Iverson, and Zarkon, and sometimes even _Lance_ , when the other paladin has annoyed him enough. Shiro can't recall a time when Keith's shoulders were not set to take a blow: take it and turn it three fold upon his attacker. 

Keith is the farthest thing from fragile possible, and Shiro knows that. But like this, Keith asleep and open, veins like shadows that flow down his wrist and across his hands to twine like threads round his fingers, collarbones and shoulders painted with traces more delicate than bone china patterns- like this, Keith is the most precious thing that Shiro has ever seen, and the older man wants nothing more than to cradle him close and guard him from everything that would ever want to harm him. Asleep, his eyes so full of fire closed and peaceful, glasswork chest lean and pale and beautiful, Keith could be a painting, a statue, an artist's greatest work- something perfect, to be admired and held in awe. Shiro loves him like this- how can he not, when Keith steals his breath with a single glimpse of him?

But then Keith will wake, move, _live_ , fierce and unapologetic, and Shiro will fall in love all over again- will fall in love as Keith trades glares with Lance, as Keith cuts through a Gladiator with one powerful swing, as Keith pilots the Red Lion with all the grace of a dancer and decimates Galra ships with all the ferocity of an inferno. Keith asleep is beautiful, precious and porcelain, and looks like a poorly timed breath could send cracks spidering across his skin. Keith awake is steel and wildfire, sharper than his bayard, and Shiro will never have to fear breaking him. He would never even try. 

Precious is not, and never has been, synonymous with fragile. 

Keith wears his veins close to his skin, that is true. But all that _really_ shows is that Keith's heart is far too strong to hide deep beneath the surface of his chest. Skin is not porcelain and veins are not shatter points; Keith will never, ever be the kind of treasure that one must lock away and never touch for fear of destroying it. 

Keith wears his veins close to his skin. It's the closest thing to wearing a heart on a sleeve that Shiro has ever seen, and he is hopelessly, helplessly in love with it, with Keith, with everything bold and brave and beautiful the younger man is. Shiro sometimes feels as if his own heart could burst out of his chest, with how much he loves Keith, every scar overflowing with his lifeblood. 

It's a good thing that, with every vein written beneath pale skin, Keith loves him back.


End file.
